I prefer to think of myself as a rational human being. I try to understand existence by applying reason to facts. And it is perhaps ironic, not upsetting but definitely a bit odd, that I find myself in the third circle of disdain.
The first circle, the first conclusion that sets me apart from many, is that science not only points to God, but requires a God. I know this with every fiber of my being. There is no other explanation for why anything exists, why the constants of physics are set just right for life, how life got started, and the complexity and wonder of life, including its crowning glory, the human brain. I’m painfully aware there are invented stories of how these things happened without God, but I find them all, in my admittedly biased view, to be childish and somewhat ridiculous. I find them all contrary to science. Life started in a dirty pond? Seriously? I say get real.
The second circle is my conclusion that the Bible is true from the beginning to the end. This includes two beliefs that inspire popular disdain. The first is that the Earth and the entire universe were created only thousands of years ago. There are over 100 scientific facts that force me to this conclusion, but I can assure you, as I suspect you already realize, that it is a distinctly minority view. The second belief in this second circle is that Jesus rose from the cross. The resurrection is by far the best documented event in the ancient world, and it changed the world far more than any other historical event.
We come to the third and loneliest circle. I believe the Septuagint chronology in Chapters 5 and 11 of Genesis is correct. The Septuagint is the oldest version of the original Hebrew Bible, it was translated from the Hebrew into Greek about 250 BC, and it is used in the Bible of the Orthodox Church, which has over 200 million members. Using the Septuagint chronology, the universe was created about 7,500 years ago, and Noah’s Flood was about 5,300 years ago, or around 3,300 BC.
This last view had earned me the disdain of most of the second circle. Many Biblical Creationists – people who believe the universe is less than 10,000 years old – despise this view. They insist the Bible they hold in their hands is more accurate than the Bible that 200 million other people hold, a view that seems more than a bit chauvinistic to me. They have attacked me for this view with vicious prose. But when you use the chronology of the Bibles in the western Church, Noah’s flood occurred about 2100 BC. This contradicts history and archeology. One of the few people who agree with me on this is Titus Kennedy. Titus is an outstanding Biblical archeologist and the author of several books, including Unearthing the Bible, which I highly recommend.
There are other Biblical and historical reasons to prefer the Septuagint chronology. It gets a bit technical, but if you’re interested here’s Henry Smith’s excellent article.
I invite you to join me in the third circle of disdain. The water is delightful. There is a refreshing joy that comes from knowing God is real and the Bible is true.
Thanks for reading,
Doug Ell